Bonsai – 盆栽

Bonsai is the japanese art of growing miniature trees in containers. This art comes from the Chinese tradition of penjing, and it is a thousand years old tradition.

Bonsai is the japanese pronunciation of the earlier chinese term penzai. Meaning planting in tray.

They are meant for contemplation and the pleasure of growing it as an effort and ingenuity.

All starts with a cutting or seedling of another plant suitable for bonsai development.

Bonsai are usually confused with dwarfing, but the art of bonsai focus on using regular trees (non dwarf) and use techniques as pruning, root reduction, defoliation, etc., to mimic the natural full-size trees.

Some of these bonsai comes from a tree that is more than 300 years old.

Wiring branches and trunks allows the bonsai designer to create the desired general form and make detailed branch and leaf placements.

Deadwood bonsai techniques called jin and shari simulate age and maturity in a bonsai.

The prices vary because of many factors, but they range from 15,000 yen to 20,000,000 yen. Among the factors we can include the size, the details, the place where the original tree is from (like ones from a cliff, usually much stronger trees, etc.)

I leave you with some bonsai pictures taken at Saitama Prefecture – you can find plenty on the internet!

If you want to see more about Japan, make any questions, leave your comments, share pictures and videos, or just say hello, feel free to join us at our Facebook or our Made in Japan Online Store